the proof of the pudding is in the eating

English

Etymology

This proverb dates back at least to the 14th century as "Jt is ywrite that euery thing Hymself sheweth in the tastyng", and William Camden stated it in 1605 in Remaines of a Greater Worke, Concerning Britaine as "All the proofe of a pudding, is in the eating", per Rogers' Dictionary of Cliche and the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations.

A 1682 translation of Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux Le Lutrin (written between 1672 and 1674) renders it "The proof of th' pudding's seen i' the eating."

The current phrasing is generally attributed to the 1701 translation by Peter Anthony Motteux of a proverb Miguel de Cervantes used in Don Quixote (1615), al freír de los huevos lo verá (“you will see it when you fry the eggs”).

The shorter form the proof is in the pudding, which is found in an 1867 issue of the British Farmer's Magazine, and came into common use in the United States in the 1950s, is becoming increasingly common, despite missing the point of the original meaning.

Proverb

the proof of the pudding is in the eating

1. You can only say something is a success after it has been tried out or used.

   I know you didn't think it was a very good product, but just look at the fantastic sales figures. That's the proof of the pudding.

   • 2019 October 23, Pip Dunn, “The next king of Scotland”, in Rail, page 50:

     It begs the question: will this be a costly mistake? I think not, but the proof of the pudding is in a RAIL train test - so armed with stopwatch, measuring tape and notepad, it was time to head north to track one down and test it!

Translations

the only real test of something is as what it is intended to be used for

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 百聞不如一見／百闻不如一见 (zh) (bǎi wén bùrú yī jiàn), 百闻不如一见 (zh) (bǎi wén bùrú yī jiàn)

• Dutch: de praktijk zal het leren
• French: il faut juger sur pièces, la qualité se révèle à l’usage
• German: Probieren geht über Studieren; die Praxis wird es zeigen
• Hungarian: a puding próbája az evés
• Japanese: 論より証拠 (ja)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Korean: 백문이 불여일견 (baengmuni buryeoilgyeon)
• Norman: la preuve du podîn ch'est dé l'gouôter
• Russian: не попробуешь, не узнаешь (ne poprobuješʹ, ne uznaješʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian: ne znaš dok ne probaš (idiom)
• Spanish: el algodón no engaña, en la cancha se ven los pingos, no sabes la calidad de algo hasta que lo has experimentado., al freír de los huevos lo verá (es)
• Swedish: puddingen bevisas i ätandet